Ecofeminism focuses on the intersectionality of the oppression of women and nature. To explain this in terms understandable across cultures, Ivone Gebara has taken a different approach in defining the complex and loaded term. She separates the two in her lectures, explaining ecology and then feminism and the ways in which they impact each other. She writes, “I try to be an ecologist in a feminist perspective and a feminist in an ecological perspective. I try to explain ecology as one of the deepest concerns of feminism and ecology as having a deep resonance or a political and anthropological consequence from a feminist perspective. Both feminism and ecology want to understand human beings as female and male living in a complex web of life inside different cultures and ecosystems” (Gebara, 94). The destruction of nature directly correlates to the struggle women (especially those in underrepresented communities) face across the globe. The issue of ecofeminism should be considered not only locally or nationally, but internationally.
Women have been fighting the destruction of the ecosystem in powerful ways for decades. In the 1970’s there were 2 major movements, the Green Belt Movement in Kenya (1977) , and the Chipko movement in India (1973). Starting with the former, the Green Belt movement in Kenya was a women lead initiative to save the ecosystem and speak for the people which were being oppressed by a border-line dictatorship under Kenyan President Moi. Maathai, with the help of a handful of other women, helped to undo some initiatives set by the government which would have destroyed ecosystems and led to the downfall of communities who directly relied on forests and clean water, which was already on a decline. “The Green Belt Movement in Kenya started in 1977, when women from rural areas and urban centers, reflecting on their needs at organised forums, spoke about environmental degradation. They did not have firewood. They needed fruits to cure malnutrition in their children. They needed clean drinking water, but the pesticides and herbicides used on farms to grow cash crops polluted the water” (Maathai). Maathai was threatened and hunted down by the government, but she held her ground and prevailed in the end, for example by dissuading investors from destroying a popular natural park for the purpose of building a skyscraper with a four story statue of Moi to match. Women made a difference in the lives of everyday folk who depended on that park to rest, gather, and be free.
The Chipko movement in India was the start of the ‘tree hugger’ term we hear being used today. Although it is often used as a negative connotation, the origin of the term came from the sacrifice and bravery of those who risked their lives, and sometimes lost, to save the trees and other natural resources from being cut down in the name of capitalism. “We need movements like the Chipko movement now more than ever. A time when it is estimated within the next one hundred years, there will be no rainforests left whatsoever when 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon forest alone. Although forests still cover roughly thirty percent of the earth, we lose an area roughly equivalent to the size of Panama in forested land every year” (Edugeen). The sacrifice of these communities, and most notably the women in these communities, helped to save some parts of the world from deforestation, which is one of the largest contributors of climate change and loss of biodiversity. The awareness being raised by the communities most affected by the destruction also raises a very grim question, best represented by the powerful inclusion of a real 911 call made from a bystander at Standing Rock who asked “who protects the people from the police?” in the video Prolific the Rapper x A Tribe Called Red during the peaceful protests of deforestation which resulted in militia style police attacking protestors. We need to ask ourselves whether turning a profit is worth destroying nature.“We choose the life of the planet and the respect of all living beings or we choose to die by our own bad decisions” (Gebara, 99). Movements like these are necessary in order to reverse the damage that has been done. Those who are oppressed, especially women, must fight to preserve nature now more than ever if we want to 1) enjoy this one planet we share for generations to come, and 2) ensure that there are generations that follow.